This week’s suicide attack on Revolutionary
Guards in Iran’s south-eastern province of Sistan and Baluchistan, the second
in two months, could not have come at a more awkward moment for Pakistani prime
minister Imran Khan.

Inside the conference, dubbed The
Ministerial to Promote a Future of Peace and Security in the Middle East,
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo insisted that US policy was designed to force
Iran to alter its regional and defense policies and not geared towards regime
change in Tehran.

Yet, US President Donald J. Trump
appeared to be sending mixed messages to the Iranians as well as sceptical
European governments with his personal lawyer, Rudolph Giuliani, addressing a
rally outside the conference organized by the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq, a controversial
Iranian exile group believed to enjoy Saudi backing.

Mr. Trump appeared to fuel suspicion
that Mr. Giuliani represented his true sentiment by tweeting on the eve of the
Warsaw conference in a reference to the 40th anniversary of the Islamic revolution: “40 years of
corruption. 40 years of repression. 40 years of terror. The regime in Iran has
produced only #40YearsofFailure. The long-suffering Iranian people
deserve a much brighter future.”

Militants targeted a Revolutionary
Guards headquarters in December in a rare suicide bombing
in Chabahar, home to
Iran’s Indian-backed port on the Arabian Sea, a mere 70 kilometres from the
Chinese supported port of Gwadar, a crown jewel in the Pakistani leg of the
People’s Republic’s Belt and Road initiative.

If executed, covert action could
jeopardize Indian hopes to use Chabahar to bypass Pakistan, significantly
enhance its trade with Afghanistan and Central Asian nations and create an
anti-dote to Gwadar.

Iranian concerns that the attacks
represent a US and/or Saudi covert effort are grounded not only in more recent
US and Saudi policies, including Mr. Trump’s withdrawal last year from the 2015
international agreement to curb Iran’s nuclear program despite confirmation of
its adherence to the accord and re-imposition of harsh economic sanctions
against the Islamic republic.